June 15, 2018 - Sungai Putri, a forest on the island Borneo is under threat, as illegal logging continues to occur in the area, despite a moratorium that was enforced by the Indonesian government to prohibit exploitation.

The forest stretches over 57 thousand hectares and is home to approximately 1200 orangutans.

The moratorium prohibiting forest logging was enforced by the government following a 2015 dry season, when severe forest fires burned many parts of Indonesia, and other countries in South East Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, and southern Thailand.

June 8, 2018 -The Zambian government has approved the culling of 1,000 to 2,000 hippos along the Luangwa River over the next 5 years.

This is expected to happen in the form of trophy hunts, which apparently even tourists can take part in.

The culling was suspended in 2016 when conservationists pointed out that there was a great lack of scientific evidence presented, which supported the justification of culling in the Luangwa Valley.

June 5, 2018 -A small male pilot whale, found unable to breath or move in a canal in Thailand last week, has died from large amounts of plastic clogging its digestive system. After being found near the Malaysia border, the pilot whale was treated by veterinarians while kept afloat by buoys and protected from harmful solar radiation by umbrellas. Despite days of effort, the whale ultimately passed away, but not before vomiting up five plastic bags. Upon post-mortem investigation, it was discovered that the whale had ingested more than 17 pounds of plastic, including 80 shopping bags, which had inhibited its ability to eat.

June 1, 2018 -Endangered shark fins arrived in a 2,150-pound shipment marked ‘Dry Seafood’ for Win Lee Fung Ltd. The shipment came from Colombo, Sri Lanka by way of Singapore. Singapore Airlines bans shark fin cargo and said they’d sent a reminder to all stations to administer sampling checks on shipments with such a label. They also said they blacklisted the shipper. Sea Shepherd Asia director Gary Stokes told Reuters, “This is another case of misleading and deceiving. The shipment came declared as ‘dried seafood’ so [it] didn’t flag any alarms.”

May 9, 2018 -For 12,000 years, wolves have roamed Southeast Alaska's rugged Alexander Archipelago—a 300-mile stretch of more than 1,000 islands mostly within the Tongass National Forest. Now, their old-growth forest habitat is rapidly disappearing, putting the wolves at risk. As the region's logging policies garner controversy, a new study examines what the wolves need in order to survive.

Largely isolated from mainland wolves by water barriers and the Coast Mountains, the Alexander Archipelago wolf (Canis lupus ligoni) is widely considered to be a subspecies of gray wolf genetically distinct from other North American populations. In the 1990s and again in 2011, conservationists sought to protect the island wolves under the Endangered Species Act, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied these petitions—most recently, in January 2016.

May 8, 2018 -People have occasionally glimpsed tailless whales in western North America, but a recent spike in sightings has troubled scientists. This year alone, at least three flukeless gray whales have been spotted near California. Ship collisions or killer whale attacks probably aren’t to blame for the injuries; entanglement in fishing equipment is likely the cause.

Apr. 11, 2017 -Last month customs officials in Singapore intercepted more than 60 bags containing nearly 1,800 pieces of smuggled elephant ivory. To help shed more light on the crimes, they placed a call to American conservation biologist Samuel Wasser.

Wasser is a scientist, but also a bit of a detective. Using techniques he has spent decades perfecting, Wasser can extract DNA from any elephant tusk, allowing him to identify almost exactly where the animal was killed by poachers. “I can take a tusk and I can pinpoint where it came from within three kilometers — and sometimes to the very park,” he says.

Apr. 10, 2017 -Furry, button-nosed and dependent on sea ice for their survival, polar bears have long been poster animals for climate change.

But at a time when established climate science is being questioned at the highest levels of government, climate denialists are turning the charismatic bears to their own uses, capitalizing on their symbolic heft to spread doubts about the threat of global warming.

VILCHES, Spain, Mar. 31, 2018 -The Iberian lynx is a picky eater. Despite its agility and speed, it almost only chases rabbits.

This narrow choice of prey helps explain why this feline came close to extinction less than two decades ago, after disease wiped out large numbers of rabbits from the Iberian Peninsula. But a vast breeding and relocation program has now turned the lynx into a flagship example of Europe’s efforts to maintain its biodiversity.

Mar. 1, 2018 -Sudan is a 45-year-old northern white rhinoceros – and the last male of his kind. He’s suffering from poor health, and if he dies before he is able to mate it will likely signal the effective extinction of the northern white rhino, a subspecies that was driven to its current crisis by poaching. “We are very concerned about him — he’s extremely old for a rhino and we do not want him to suffer unnecessarily,” said the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where Sudan and two female white rhinos Najin and Fatu live.

Feb. 12, 2018 -A suspected poacher was mauled to death and eaten by a pride of lions outside of South Africa's famed Kruger National Park, according to media reports.

The victim's remains were found over the weekend at a private game park near Hoedspruit in the province of Limpopo. The lions ate most of the body but left the head behind. A loaded hunting rifle was also found nearby.

"It seems the victim was poaching in the game park when he was attacked and killed by lions. They ate his body, nearly all of it, and just left his head and some remains," Limpopo police spokesman Moatshe Ngoepe said in a statement.

Nov.17, 2017 - So what are you gonna do?

President Trump on Friday reversed the government’s decision to start allowing hunters to import trophies of elephants that were killed in two African countries, pending a further review.

His evening Twitter message reversed a decision by his own administration over Zimbabwe that was announced this week and promoted as recently as Friday afternoon by the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Sept. 20, 2017 - On this planet, so many plants and animals are disappearing that scientists worry we’re experiencing a sixth mass extinction. Many of these organisms are taking hits from a variety of angles — habitat loss, climate change and more — that it’s hard to get a grasp on how to stop their declines. Conservation success stories are rare.

But sea turtles may be an exception, according to an comprehensive analysis of global sea turtle abundance published Wednesday in Science Advances.

Sept 16, 2017 - They’re the color of mud, and they can grow up to two feet long. People call them snot otters because they’re covered in a layer of slippery mucus. Or lasagna lizards because they have a crinkly flap of skin on their sides that helps them absorb oxygen (and resembles a lasagna noodle).

Eastern hellbenders live throughout the Appalachian region in the United States. Their ancestors have been on earth for around 160 million years, but in the last several decades their numbers have dropped dangerously in several states, primarily due to habitat destruction. Eastern hellbenders are endangered in Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.

August 23, 2017 - The whale shark is the biggest fish and shark in the world. These gentle marine giants roam the oceans around the globe, generally alone. However, large numbers of whale sharks often gather in areas with abundant plankton food—making them prime tourist attractions. Its enormous mouth (nearly five feet wide) engulfs large quantities of tiny plankton that it filters through its gills as it swims.

August 17, 2017 - At a facility located on the edges of Nairobi National Park, a small crowd of smiling people stands quietly. Adults and children from countries around the world line up along a rope that surrounds a large area of red dirt. Within the paddock are puddles of water, hills of soft russet soil, newly cut branches thick with green leaves, and a large wheelbarrow filled with oversized milk bottles. The play area at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust baby elephant nursery is ready for the youngsters that brought so many people here.

August 17, 2017 - Up to 20 grizzly bears could be hunted in 2017 based on 2016 population estimates and acceptable federally set mortality limits. Trophy hunting is highly unlikely in 2017 because the three states bordering Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks intend to hold public hearings before hunting rules are finalized.

Aug. 15, 2017 - Some Florida fishermen are purposefully flouting laws and reeling in endangered sharks, an important new paper reveals.

The illegal activities were uncovered by shark researcher David Shiffman, who studied postings on the online message boards of the South Florida Shark Club, the largest club in the state for fishermen who practice from piers or beaches. Shiffman examined more than 1,250 posts by these land-based anglers and found evidence of people knowingly catching protected species such as lemon sharks (Negaprion breivirostris), sandbar sharks (Carcharhinus plumbeus), tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier), and three hammerhead shark species (Sphyrna lewini, S. mokarran, and S. zygaea). At least 389 sharks were illegally caught, according to his analysis.

Aug. 15, 2017 - For five straight months, Sheila Holmes slipped through the Madagascar rainforest, 16,000 kilometres away from her Calgary university classes, eyes and feet following black-and-white ruffed lemurs as they flew through the trees.

She's now working on her anthropology doctorate, became a crucial part of what is the longest continuous monitoring program of one of the most endangered primate species in the world.

July 31, 2017- On MAY 3, 2017, a newborn male bison entered the world on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, a historic event signaling the rebirth of an iconic species on these tribal lands—and of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho people who share them.

July 31, 2017 - The aardvark, a highlight for anyone on a game-viewing African safari, will become increasingly rare as the world warms and dries, and the consequences go well beyond a decline in aardvark safari encounters.

Added July 29, 2017 - Wildlife, including endangered species, are killed illegally, smuggled and sold for billions of dollars each year.

Founded by a crime scene investigator, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, uses state-of-the-art technology (as well as flesh-eating beetles). Meet some of the forensics experts at "the only full service crime lab for wildlife in the world."

July 27, 2017 - How can we eat well without harming wildlife? One simple step we can all take right now that would have a far greater impact than any other (aside from having fewer children): Cut out the grain-fed beef.

The inefficiency of feeding livestock grain to turn them into meals for humans makes a diet heavy in animals particularly harsh on the Earth’s resources. For example, in the United States, it takes 25 kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of beef. Pigs have a grain-to-meat-ratio of 9:1, and chickens are 3:1.

Previous Next The National Wildlife Property Repository (NWPR) is a 22,000 square foot office and warehouse located northeast of Denver, Colorado at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. The facility is responsible for receiving wildlife items that have been forfeited or abandoned to the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service.

In accordance with the law, these items are stored in a secure environment, and many of the items are donated to educational facilities, nonprofit organizations, and conservation agencies to aid in teaching about endangered species and other wildlife. Others items are sent to scientific institutions to be used in research to develop better identification methods to protect wildlife.

July 21, 2017 - Captain Oona Layolle is the campaign leader for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s Milagro III mission, which just returned from the Gulf of California after a six-month effort to save the critically endangered vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus) from extinction.

The most important part of their mission — a partnership with the Mexican government — involved finding and removing illegal gillnets set by fishermen to capture another local species, the totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), whose swim bladders that sell for thousands of dollars a pound to Chinese investors. The indiscriminate gillnets, set and anchored into place, capture and kill totoaba, vaquita and everything else that crosses their paths.

July 12, 2017 - The Mississippi River Delta in Louisiana is home to some of North America’s highest concentrations of wildlife. From the beloved Louisiana black bear to Louisiana’s answer to the flamingo, the roseate spoonbill, the state is home to an exciting array of wildlife. But the important wetland habitat for these and other creatures is in trouble.

Sadly, the coastline is disappearing at a rate of one football field every hour. But all is not lost.

July 12, 2017 - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it will review whether Florida panthers are still an endangered species.

The review, which is required every 5 years under the Endangered Species Act, comes amid growing calls from hunters and ranchers to take the big cats off the endangered species list in response to population growth.

Though the population has increased from perilously low numbers due to the protections provided by the Endangered Species Act, its numbers and distribution are still far too limited to secure the Florida panther from extinction.

July 12, 2017 - The shattering blasts come every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, for weeks on end. The Trump Administration wants to allow the use of seismic airgun blasting to map the ocean floor from Florida to Delaware in the search for oil and gas.

Recent testimony by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke at House Natural Resources Committee has made it clear that seismic testing in the eastern Gulf of Mexico will follow next.